


no heroes

by LiterallyAViking



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies), The Isle of the Lost Series - Melissa de la Cruz
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Multi, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Twue Wuv
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-08-21 20:36:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16583714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiterallyAViking/pseuds/LiterallyAViking
Summary: Mal's first memory was of a searing hot poker being pressed into her side, fire consuming the dragon as it sat poised about the lion.





	no heroes

Mal’s first memory was of a searing hot poker being pressed into her side, her skin bubbling underneath the objects hold as she worked as best as she could to keep a shriek of pain from leaving her mouth. The poker pulled away from her body before being pressed back to the spot once again, digging into her flesh as if to pierce the pale exterior, eager for a taste of the crimson drink just below. The clawed fingers laced through her short purple hair yanked harshly as she let out a gurgled sob, the noise immediately silenced at the feeling.

“For Evil’s sake, you ungrateful brat,” a harsh voice sneered from above her as the poker was finally tossed aside, the girl following soon after as she tumbled pathetically to the ground. Mal’s side ached with pain, a dull throbbing keeping steady time with her heart as she rolled about on the splintered wooden floor in an attempt to keep anything from touching the injury. A face appeared above Mal’s head, her vision blurred with unshed tears. A set of scaly horns perched atop a head full of hair the color of the night sky took her focus, the girl too ashamed to look into the glowing green eyes she was sure her mother was flashing at her. “This is for your own bad, only heroes have soulmarks,” –she said the word like it was poison on her lips— “And you, my girl, are not a hero, are you?”

Mal nodded as best as she could with the hurt still coursing through her, barely able to open her mouth without choking on her own spit and bile. Maleficent—mother—narrowed her eyes down at the girl, bending down and grabbing her by the chin. With all the force that her frail, malnourished bones had, she yanked the girl upwards until she was in a position halfway between sitting and laying. Mal didn’t dare reach out to separate herself from her mother’s hold. What the woman had just done to her was something borne out of mercy, out of the twisted sense of kindness that haunted the Isle, and was nothing compared to what she would force upon the girl if she fought back. That would be a result of pure fury.

“I asked,” Maleficent hissed, her eyes glowing the toxic green that Mal so detested as she forced the girl to submit to her authority. Mal’s own eyes flickered in response. “Are. You. A hero, girl?”

“No,” Mal said wetly, the words soaked with saliva and the threat of tears. Still, a burst of pride went off within Mal’s gut in response to her mother’s soft, satisfied smirk, the closest the woman got to congratulatory as possible. The girl tumbled back to the ground, barely able to get her hands under herself in order to keep her head from banging against the wood as Maleficent released her, stalking away with a flourish of the tattered cloak she had donned as long as Mal had known her—all four years. 

The woman stopped at the doorframe, Mal’s eyes still on her, not willing to let her guard down until the door was closed firmly behind her and she could hear the woman clattering around downstairs in the shop, and turned back to face her daughter. Mal tensed in response.

“Remember that, girl,” Maleficent’s voice was quiet, so soft that if Mal had not been so fully absorbed with the woman, she likely would have missed it. “There’s no chance for you to be a hero, and that thing would have kept you from being the villain you’re meant to be.”

\--

Ben had known about soulmarks since before he could walk, especially since his had bloomed upon his smooth, pale skin just a few months after he had been born. It was pale and would remain so until his soulmate touched it, until they placed their fingers upon the design and brought forth a flurry of twisting colors that would litter Ben’s skin for days afterward. His mark was a ferocious dragon—his soulmate, he assumed—wrapped protectively about a mighty lion whose maw was open as if in a roar.

“Ben, darling,” Ben’s mother cooed at the small boy, pulling his attention from the mark that sat across his ribs. The woman smiled affectionately at her son, setting her book aside in order to shuck Ben’s shirt back down his torso, hiding the mark from sight. Ben let out a sigh but quickly smiled up at his mother, reaching a hand out to press at the golden mark upon her cheek from where his father had kissed her that morning. Their love was strong—infamously strong—and even so many years after their meeting each of their touches still brought soulcolors to the surface of the skin. “What are you doing, my sweet.”

Ben clambered into his mother’s lap at the woman’s invitation, shifting about in her arms until he was comfortably pressed against her, the sound of her steady heartbeat pounding in his ear. He let out a satisfied hum as his mother reached ran a hand through his golden locks, eyes closing in contentment as he snuggled closer to the woman. “Jus’ thinking.”

“Just thinking, huh,” Belle echoed teasingly, tickling lightly at where she knew Ben’s soulmark was and wrenching a flurry of giggles from the boy. “You’re far too much like me.”

It took a moment for Ben to calm down, giggles still wracking his body every so often even after his mother had ceased her attack. His face was flushed and he quickly buried it back into his mother, leaning his face up so that he could see her. She made a face at him. “What do you mean, maman?”

“Before I met your father,” his mother began, “All I ever thought of was that mark. Who would my other half be? What would they be like? Would they love me? And it was only after I began to live with your father, while he was still the beast, that my mind was finally away from the idea. I only remembered it after he accidentally brushed up against me while we were dancing about once and the colors took to life. It was beautiful, shocking, yes, but oh-so-beautiful.”

Ben tilted his head curiously up at the woman, unsure of what she was trying to say. 

“Don’t let the mark keep you from living your life. Your soul, whoever they may be, will come into your life as seamlessly as a sip of water.”

\--

“I can’t believe it,” Evie squealed into Mal’s ear as the four to-be-villains lounged about their hideout, having immediately run to the base after their parents’ dismissal over the letter requesting their presence at Auradon Prep. Mal and Evie lay stretched out on one side of the bed while Jay and Carlos took up the other half, poking at each other every so often and watching with glee as colors lit up the other's skin in response. Usually they spent time writing obscenities on each other and drawing wicked images, but for now they were content with teasing at each other, instead. “Auradon! The luxury! The clothing! The princes!”

Mal winced as Evie let out another shriek of joy, reaching out to slap lightly at her friend as if to reprimand her for harming her eardrums. Evie smacked her right back, Mal fighting down the urge to flash her eyes and force the girl into submission, a stupid instinct that she had learned from her mother, one that she had sworn never to use on her allies, no matter how angry she got. 

“The luxury is what I’m looking forward to,” Jay chimed in from where he was, somehow beneath Carlos’ body as the smaller boy poked and prodded at the broader boy’s face, a plethora of colors glittering to life across his skin in response. “Even one jewel from one of those spoiled brat’s crowns will leave me set for life, imagine Jafar’s face when I bring back the whole tiara!” Jay chuffed in laughter, a confident noise that hid something beneath it to those that were none the wiser.

“I wanna check out their tech,” Carlos added happily, a dreamy sigh leaving his lips as if the very thought was enough to push him into a daylong fantasy. “Imagine everything I’ll be able to do! And they’ll actually have a full range of pure chemicals rather than the ones we scrounge up around here, right E?”

“If I don’t find my prince once away,” Evie spoke quickly as if to refute Carlos’ point, despite the glimmer of excitement that Mal could see in her eyes. “I would be more than willing to play a little Weird Science with you.”

Mal let out a chuckle of her own as the others continued to plot and plan around her, not bothering to bolster their excitement as she had stunted her own. She knew that, once the wand was in her mother’s hands, everything would go back to the way it was. She would be the troublesome daughter that deserved a good slap every once in a while, to keep her in line. Evie would be the doll Grimhilde would dress and paint and play with as she chose. Jay would be the errand boy, the boy who slept outside, the boy who had to pick lock after lock after lock to reach his food. Carlos would be Cruella’s punching bag, her ashtray, her knife sharpener, her slave once more.

If there was one thing that Mal didn’t want, it was for any of that to become reality again, but it was the only way. The mental grip that each of their parents had on them was enough to keep them from rebelling in such radical goodness as friendship and happiness. It was that which would keep them as they were, even as they crossed the sea separating the Isle from the mainland. Even as they learned, and loved, and grew. Looking back on it, it was easily the most villainous thing anyone on the island had ever done, and succeeded at, to boot. 

\--

The boy who met them when they exited the limo was beautiful, and Mal almost stopped breathing when she had looked at him, something in her heart filling with affection as her burn ached in a way that it hadn’t since Maleficent had first burnt the mark from her skin. Mal’s hand came up to clutch at the pain, and the boy’s eyes followed, brows raising curiously at the action before coming up to meet Mal’s own. She felt as if she couldn’t breathe, her tongue drying up spectacularly in her mouth as she gaped dumbly at him. King Ben, the girl besides him had introduced him as. King. The pinnacle of what a ‘hero’ was.

Mal’s eyes were only drawn away from Ben’s at the sound of Evie’s surprise. Immediately Mal felt herself falling into defense mode, center of gravity dropping lower to the ground as she brought her hands up, ready to attack. The kids around her sent her odd looks, but she only relaxed when Evie was in her sight, her hands clutched tightly in the grasp of the girl who Ben had had on his arm, the girl smiling widely as Evie’s eyes fluttered back and forth between their hands and the girl’s face.

She could feel a body approaching her, but Mal kept from turning back to face whoever was approaching, too entranced as Evie’s confusion suddenly made way to joy, the girl leaping as she moved to embrace the Auradonian girl in her arms. The other only squirmed for a minute before returning the hug with just as much gusto.

“That’s Evie, right?” a low voice from beside her made Mal jump, the girl swinging around to only catch sight of Ben, once again. He had an affectionate grin on his face as he stared at the two girls as they pulled apart from each other before falling right back into the embrace they had just been in. “Audrey’s been looking for her soulmate since Day One. She’s soon to become a staple in your life, no matter how hard you try to fight it.”

Mal’s laughter was choked with fear as she attempted to follow the King’s own nonchalant chuckles. 

\--

When Mal gave Ben the love-laced cookie, her heart threatened to break. She really was deserving of her name, wasn’t she?

\--

The first time Mal saw the mark on Ben’s body was when he had taken her on a date to the Enchanted Lake and her mind had immediately chimed on the curiosity that was its placement. Her own mark, burnt and gone, pounded alongside her quickly beating heart, her eyes tracing the form of Ben’s torso as he dived off into the water. She laughed alongside him, pressing a strawberry to her lips as she worked to memorize the shape of his mark to memory. It was beautiful, even dyed in the muted colors that showed it had never been touched, a dragon curled about a lion. His soulmate would be just as fierce and majestic as he was, Mal supposed as she savored the taste of her strawberry before reaching for yet another. The bowl was running low, and Mal was tempted to call Ben back and return to the academy to get more of the fruit alone.

The pool was seemingly empty when Mal glanced up, and immediately panic surged within her. Ben, the King, the heir apparent, was somewhere underwater and had yet to come up. Mal pushed herself up to her feet as she shouted the boy’s name.

“Ben?” It took all of the villainous courage in Mal to leap into the Enchanted Lake, to leap into the pit of water that threatened to swallow her up each time it lapped at the gazebo that she and Ben claimed for their picnic. Cold embraced Mal’s body and pierced at her scarred side, a sharp feeling of pain racing through her veins with the used-to-be mark the source of the hurt. Mal hissed before carrying on, the familiarity of pain and adrenaline leaving her surging deeper and deeper into the lake. “Ben? Ben!”

“Whoa!” a set of strong arms caught Mal about her waist, spinning her about dramatically as she gasped in sputtered, her eyes flickering in fear and the need to fight, to lash out. She nearly did, if not for the instant recognition that came along with the voice. Ben. Relief flooded through Mal’s body before anger took over.

“You idiot!” Mal shrieked, lashing out with her hand to smack Ben’s side as he carried the two of them back towards the gazebo, laughing all the way. It was an infectious sound, but Mal remained set. “I thought you had drowned.”

“And so you jumped in?” Ben asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow as he set Mal at the edge of the gazebo, feet still dragging in the water before moving to lift himself from the pool, as well. He shook his head, water droplets flinging from his head and onto Mal, the girl shrieking in surprise as she held her hands up in defense. “Despite not knowing how to…”

It took Mal a moment to turn once Ben fell silent, her own eyebrow raised as she set her soaked boots beside her body, watching as the water drenched the blanket that they had sat on earlier. Ben was staring curiously at his side, mouth opened as if in a silent gasp as his shirt sat loosely in his grip. Mal frowned at the boy’s silence. “What?”

“Mal?” Ben picked up suddenly, not turning to face her even as he addressed her. His voice was choked and high pitched as if he wasn’t sure what was going on. That makes two of us, Mal grumbled to herself, rolling her eyes before making a sound as if encouraging Ben to continue. “Do you have a soulmate.”

“No,” the answer was simultaneous, Mal barely even registering the question before her mouth had fallen open in response. Her mother had trained her well, the girl supposed bitterly as she sucked a lip into her mouth, a hand fluttering to her side to clutch at the burn. She sighed. “At least, not anymore.”

“Did they…die?” Ben continued.

“No,” Mal said once again, shocked with herself for being so honest, especially to someone she was tasked with destroying, with betraying. She clenched her jaw, but the words came out, nonetheless. “I don’t have the mark, not anymore.”

Ben turned slowly towards her, the water still dripping from his torso. A flurry of colors—greens, purples, blues, ones that had yet to be named—were dancing across his skin, all originating from the dragon and the lion which were lit the most brilliant shade of love that it nearly blinded Mal. Where she had unknowingly hit at Ben in response to his teasing. She gasped as her hand tightened against her own side, which ached like never before.

Mal turned from Ben, but not before ushering him forwards. He was her soulmate, after all, as much as it would pain her mother to hear, and moved to rip at the seam of her dress. She ignored Ben’s shocked noises to instead tear the fabric in two, the robe having been made of the flimsy material that haunted Auradon rather than the thick leather that were all the rage on the Isle. 

“Oh my…” Mal couldn’t finish her exclamation as she stared down at her side, the burn having become a secondary wound on her skin as the soulmark she had lost long ago sat proudly atop her skin. She touched it, mystified, and winced as she pressed too hard at the blistered skin. “It was gone, she burnt it off long ago.”

“We’re at the Enchanted Lake,” Ben said as if to explain the miracle. Mal was glad he didn’t ask just who ‘she’ was as she turned her glassy eyes up to the boy, tears threatening to tumble down her cheeks at the look of awe he wore. He reached out, hesitantly, for the matching mark. “The magic of the mark can’t be severed, fire be damned.”

Mal shifted and giggled as Ben cursed, and reached out to take hold of his hand, moving it gently so that his fingers brushed against her stagnant mark. Just as it had done with Ben, colors erupted from the mark like a firework, dashing up Mal’s arm to her hand before blending with the tendrils that had been drawn from Ben’s own mark. A feeling of warmth, contentment, wholeness embraced Mal as she stared dumbly up at Ben once again, as she had the first time she met him. A dopey smile spilled across his face as he reached his free hand to cup Mal’s face. She could feel the warmth of the colors being extracted beneath his touch.

“Can I kiss you, Mal?” Ben asked. 

The words were barely out of his mouth before Mal was pushing forwards and connecting her lips to his, pressing assuredly into his warmth as the colors burst spectacularly about them, the dragon and the lion. The kiss wasn’t too long, but it carried with it all the affection, all the hope, all the desperation that each of them felt, so soft and caring that it brought tears to Mal’s eyes, so unused to the feeling as it was. 

“The Enchanted Lake also washes away magic,” Ben said, his voice light and teasing as the two pulled away, resting their foreheads against each other. Mal lifted her eyes to lock with Ben’s, his own glittering with something teasing and fun. She quirked an eyebrow in response. “That means the love potions washed away.”

“Oh,” Mal said shortly, freezing for her moment as her mind rushed through the possibilities. Ben laughed at the look on her face, and Mal was quick to shut up his teasing with a kiss.

\--

“Fairy Godmother,” Mal asked as courteously as she could once the faces of their parents lit up the screen. She had Evie’s hand in one of hers, and Carlos’ in the other, the four of them grimacing in response to their parents’ faux enthusiasm. “Could we have a moment alone? If you don’t mind.”

“Of course not, my girl,” Fairy Godmother replied after a moment’s hesitation, the smile on her face less than trusting, but the woman clearly set on giving the four of them the benefit of the doubt. “Just call if you need me!”

Mal waited until the stout woman shuffled from the room and into the hallway before turning to face the infamous four. Their parents. The fake pleasantries that each had worn on their faces for the sake of appearances for the fairy washed away just as quickly into sneers, each of them wrestling to have their voices heard, for their criticisms of their child to be heard first. Mal cleared her throat and flashed her eyes, silencing the four adults immediately. Maleficent seemed to glow with pride.

“Mother,” Mal began, “Grimhilde, Jafar, Cruella, we have something to announce.” Mal paused and looked about at her friends, the ones who had carried her since before Auradon, who had believed in her even without her soulmark, who loved her no matter what. Their hold on her hand tightened in support and she turned back to the screen, straightening her back with faux confidence and staring down the group. “We’ve decided that we will no longer help you. We will be remaining in Auradon Prep, and you four has-beens will remain on the Isle to rot.”

A stunned silence followed, but only for a moment, Maleficent’s eyes flaring immediately in her wrath. “What did you just say to me, girl? Are you trying to be a hero? I burnt that hero out of you long ago, Mal, or don’t you remember? You cried, like the weakling you are, and you beg--”

The sound of her mother’s verbal whipping ceased as Carlos reached out to power the television down, just ending their interaction with their parents. Hopefully their last, Mal thought as she swallowed thickly about the tears gathering in her throat.

“We may not be heroes,” Mal managed, only noticing that tears had begun to flow from her eyes once Evie reached out to pat her face dry as softly as she could, Carlos and Jay having moved in to huddle about her, pulling her into an unbreakable hug. “But we’re good. And that’s more than they can say they ever were.”

**Author's Note:**

> dab


End file.
